0+ = 2

February 10, 2007 (12:41pm)
12.6º F, Sunshine, W wind 8 mph.

Good afternoon,

Two nights with the temperature staying above zero! That has not happened for some time. This morning it really came close to 0º F, but it didn’t go below. The lowest was 0.2º F. Now I have to say that is close, but it didn’t go below. According to the weatherman, it should stay above or at 0º F as our low for the next week. I watched the Ag Report this morning and they predicted out 90 days. Supposed to be drier and warmer than normal. The next 30 days are supposed to be colder though. Not much that we can do about it - other than shiver or sweat.

For some reason, I didn’t sleep well last night. Was awake from about 3:00 A.M., and decided at 4:00 A.M. it was time to get up. One thing, it allowed me to watch the Ag Report. It is an interesting program which used to be on everyday an hour or two later. The Saturday show always has a restored antique tractor on. Those are neat and a huge expenditure of time and money to restore. Most of them are now being used again around the farm, mostly for light duty. This morning’s tractor was a 1925 Allis-Chalmers, made in Milwaukee. What really surprised me that their tractors of that era were painted John Deere green and yellow! Didn’t know that before.

One of the results of our Amish trip, was to resupply with "Mrs. Miller’s Noodles." So tonight we have some with meatballs. Margriet wanted to make them last night, but we had picked up some riblets on sale a week or so ago and I had a hankering for them. Margriet had made a barbeque sauce a while ago (I found the recipe for Applebee’s Honey Barbeque sauce on the web a long time ago), so I marinated them in it for a couple of hours before baking them in the oven. After the meat was close to done, added more sauce, and covered them to bake for another hour or so. They turned out VERY tasty and all disappeared. We feast again on some excellent vittles in the form of meatballs in mushroom gravy over noodles. We sure do eat good in this neighborhood!

The day before yesterday, I cut the chicken leg quarters into serving sized pieces. I cooked down the backs for soup started afterwards. There were 17 quarters I cut and it made more than the usual amount of starter. Yesterday I completely filled the largest pressure cooker we have with the liquid. There was too much, and I hadn’t added the pasta! Transferred it to a 5 gallon soup pot we have, then added the pasta and more water. We will be eating chicken vegetable soup for many days to come. I had to wait most of the day before taking the meat from the bones and adding it to the liquid. I had put the meat and the liquid (in two separate containers) on the porch over night. Both were frozen when I brought them in. It took nearly the entire day to thaw the meat out. As it was, the last few pieces were still frozen when took the meat off. It is hard to tell what is meat or what is bone when it is frozen!

Margriet has been making noises about going to Otto’s Meats again. Suppose that will be on the agenda one of these days. We do need to get some soup bones now that we have all of the bean soup mix made up. 22 packages! Think it will be enough for a year or two. Maybe more. We have also run out of potato sausage and other good things he sells.

When I went up town yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to see the price of gasoline had dropped 2¢/gallon. It is still way too high priced, but I like the trend. At the moment it is cheaper here than in Green Bay. Not normal.

Just in case you thought I had forgotten about Bram with the pictures of Kalle yesterday, I didn’t. Here are a couple of him, with the help of some of his friends apparently, decorating a shade for one of the rooms in their home. He too is getting bigger and more like a young man than a boy. From the sound of it, both boys are well and being boys.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><